South Sudan Files Formal Protest over Infiltrators

South Sudan files formal protest with Israel over its treatment of the issue of the illegal infiltrators.

By Elad Benari

First Publish: 6/29/2012, 1:15 AM

Sudanese migrant in Israel

Flash 90

South Sudan filed a formal protest with Israel on Thursday, over the Jewish State's treatment of the issue of the illegal South Sudanese infiltrators.

In a diplomatic message South Sudan sent to the Israeli Foreign Ministry, it asked Israel not to harm the dignity of the infiltrators, not to film them as they leave Israel and to avoid high-profile events relating to the deportation of South Sudanese citizens.

South Sudan has also asked that Israel not define the operation which sends the South Sudanese back to their home country as a “deportation.”

A diplomatic source from South Sudan said that that the statements being made by some Israeli politicians regarding the infiltrators cause great political damage.

The source may have been referring to Interior Minister Eli Yishai, who has welcomed the deportations of the infiltrators back to their countries. Yishai’s office said in response that “when it comes to Israel's future and its character, Yishai does not play honor games.”

The departures are being arranged by the government in an operation dubbed “Going Home.” The operation combines a police crackdown with financial incentives for those who leave by choice. Several hundred more citizens of South Sudan applied last week to leave Israel.

On Thursday, Yishai instructed the Department of Immigration and Population to begin repatriating illegal alien infiltrators from the Ivory Coast.

Yishai announced that those who leave Israel the next two weeks will receive a grant of USD 500 per adult and USD 100 per child.

A court ruling earlier this week allowed illegal entrants with Ivory Coast citizenship to be deported from Israel. The court ruled in the case of 132 illegal entrants who appealed their expulsion from the country.

The roughly 2,000 Ivory Coast citizens in Israel were previous granted protection from deportation because their home country was considered a conflict zone. However, their status changed as the situation calmed. The president of Ivory Coast has agreed to their return.